Subscribe
It will be a warm winter this time, according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) seasonal temperature outlook till February 2020, released on November 29, 2019.
While the winter season in general will be warm based on average temperature, the cold-wave regions would be warmer than other regions.
“There is relatively higher probability for above normal minimum temperatures in the core Cold Wave (CW) zone during December 2019 to February 2020,” IMD said in a press release.
India’s cold-wave zone covers the north Indian states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and also other states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar.
IMD’s forecast of a pronounced warm winter in cold-wave zones applies to India’s colder states/union territories like Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
This winter, the average minimum temperature would be higher in most parts of the country. A few meteorological subdivisions in northern India would be an exception.
“Minimum temperatures over most parts of central and peninsular India are likely to be warmer than normal by ≥ 1 degree centigrade,” the IMD forecast said.
However, in the central Indian region, the maximum temperature will be lower than the average, indicating a colder winter. In case of peninsular India, the winter would be warmer than normal.
This summer was also hotter than normal. On the onset of summer in April, the IMD predicted a hotter summer for the country’s central and north-western parts. The summer witnessed 73 heatwave spells in 22 states in 97 days, ending summer in mid-July.
In fact, heatwave-like situations arrived early in India this year in March. Down To Earth reported in April: “In early March, when northern India was still recovering from cold wave conditions, Kerala was scalded. The IMD waited until the late March to call it a heatwave, by when the situation was already severe.”